re: Did Madoff's wife and kids know about the scheme

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I don't think he did. As I understand things, he just exaggerated how successful his trading was.

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By his own admission he didn't make a single trade the last 15 years of the wealth management firms existence and the Feds doubt he ever made even one trade. The firm took in $19 Billion of real money from investors and showed $60 Billion on fake books.

He would send out "statements" to investors showing the trades he made on their behalf at what price and what profit. His investors even questioned him on why the statements arrived so late each month. Looking back, it was obvious that he would generate these fake statements each month only after he knew the results of a stocks performance. And his idiot investors would stick their heads in the sand and brag to their friends about their gains each month.

He did have a fairly successful brokerage business part of the company that was legit but had nothing to do with the ponzi scheme and fake statements.